A few years ago, I went to a family reunion back east.  It was my first time in New England since I was a kid, so I took the opportunity to visit some of the towns my family came from and do some informal genealogy research. 

One of the most special moments of the trip was getting the chance to go into the house of my 3rd great grandparents, David Middleton and Margaret Ruane.  David was born around 1842 in Scotland and Margaret was born about 1835 in County Galway, Ireland. They married in Boston in 1852 and settled in Charlestown, New Hampshire.  David was a mariner when they met, but they later opened up a store near their house in Charlestown.

This branch is part of the biological family that gave up my grandfather for adoption. Many years ago, when I was first researching this family, I connected with the local historical society. They found a couple of photos of my ancestors and photocopied them for me. My contact there, Joyce, also let me know that there were still members of the family living in town.  

When I scheduled the trip, I let Joyce know I was coming for the day and she very kindly gathered some of the surviving family members to give me a tour. I got to sit down with them, and they shared pictures and gave me photocopies.  The quality isn’t great because they are copies of pictures taken of the original photos, but I’m grateful to have anything for this branch.  No one knew my grandfather existed because he was secretly born out of wedlock and given up for adoption in another town.  Several of the ladies married into the family.  But, they all did the best they could to share what they knew.  

Joyce also surprised me by introducing me to the woman who owned the Middleton house. After the chat, we headed over there and I got to go inside.

Sorry the photos are blurry. I was overly excited, plus I only had about 5 minutes to walk around the house.

After that, we went to Hope Hill Cemetery to see where David and Margaret were buried.

David unfortunately died pretty young at around 48 in 1872.  Margaret raised their 5 kids alone, one of whom was only a few months old when he died.  She remarried about a decade later to a man named Squire Smith. Margaret passed away in 1908 and was buried with David. Her mom and sister are in nearby Claremont, New Hampshire in Saint Mary’s Cemetery, a Catholic cemetery.  

Going inside their house was definitely one of the highlights of the trip – and all my genealogy research!  I’m so grateful that I was connected to these gracious people.

Have you had the chance to visit one of your ancestors’ homes to see where they lived? Did you get to go inside?